Guest Editorial Game Theory for Networks, Part I

Game theory is a field of applied mathematics that developed in the context of economics and focuses on the strategic behavior of rational agents. Strategic behavior, occurs when the utility of each agent not only affected by his own choice of strategy but also depends on the strategy chosen by other actors. Type of game can be classified as a zero-sum games, nonzero-sum games, cooperative games and non-cooperative games. Game theory has many applications in various scientific fields such as political science, economics and business, biology, philosophy, computer science and logic, etc and have been recognized as an important tool in studying, modeling and interaction analysis. At the time, game theory has found many applications in the computer networks. These applications are redefined as a game framework in which players are trying to optimize an objective function. Those strategies that direct the network to an optimal Nash equilibrium are considered as efficient strategies for network games. In this paper, we offer an overview over applications of game theory in computer networks and arrange them inside different groups.

Handbook of Applied Algorithms, 2008

Most of the existing and foreseen complex networks, such as the Internet, are operated and built by thousands of large and small entities (autonomous agents), which collaborate to process and deliver end-to-end flows originating from and terminating at any of them. The distributed nature of the Internet implies a lack of coordination among its users. Instead, each user attempts to obtain maximum performance according to his own parameters and objectives.

Computer Networks, 2010

While the Quality of Service (QoS) offered to users may be enhanced through innovative protocols and new technologies, future trends should take into account the efficiency of resource allocation and network/terminal cooperation as well. Game theory techniques have widely been applied to various engineering design problems in which the action of one component has impact on (and perhaps conflicts with) that of any other component. Therefore, game formulations are used, and a stable solution for the players is obtained through the concept of equilibrium. This survey collects applications of game theory in wireless networking and presents them in a layered perspective, emphasizing on which fields game theory could be effectively applied. To this end, several games are modeled and their key features are exposed.

Ieee Signal Processing Magazine Special Issue on Game Theory For Signal Processing and Communication, 2009

Game theoretical techniques have recently become prevalent in many engineering applications, notably in communications. With the emergence of cooperation as a new communication paradigm, and the need for self-organizing, decentralized, and autonomic networks, it has become imperative to seek suitable game theoretical tools that allow to analyze and study the behavior and interactions of the nodes in future communication networks. In this context, this tutorial introduces the concepts of cooperative game theory, namely coalitional games, and their potential applications in communication and wireless networks. For this purpose, we classify coalitional games into three categories: Canonical coalitional games, coalition formation games, and coalitional graph games. This new classification represents an application-oriented approach for understanding and analyzing coalitional games. For each class of coalitional games, we present the fundamental components, introduce the key properties, mathematical techniques, and solution concepts, and describe the methodologies for applying these games in several applications drawn from the state-of-the-art research in communications. In a nutshell, this article constitutes a unified treatment of coalitional game theory tailored to the demands of communications and network engineers.

IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 2000

Game theoretical techniques have recently become prevalent in many engineering applications, notably in communications. With the emergence of cooperation as a new communication paradigm, and the need for self-organizing, decentralized, and autonomic networks, it has become imperative to seek suitable game theoretical tools that allow to analyze and study the behavior and interactions of the nodes in future communication networks. In this context, this tutorial introduces the concepts of cooperative game theory, namely coalitional games, and their potential applications in communication and wireless networks. For this purpose, we classify coalitional games into three categories: Canonical coalitional games, coalition formation games, and coalitional graph games. This new classification represents an application-oriented approach for understanding and analyzing coalitional games. For each class of coalitional games, we present the fundamental components, introduce the key properties, mathematical techniques, and solution concepts, and describe the methodologies for applying these games in several applications drawn from the state-of-the-art research in communications. In a nutshell, this article constitutes a unified treatment of coalitional game theory tailored to the demands of communications and network engineers.

Game theory is a set of tools developed to model interactions between agents with conflicting interests . It is a field of applied mathematics that defines and evaluates interactive decision situations. It provides analytical tools to predict the outcome of complicated interactions between rational entities, where rationality demands strict adherence to a strategy based on observed or measured results . Originally developed to model problems in the field of economics, game theory has recently been applied to network problems, in most cases to solve the resource allocation problems in a competitive environment. The reason that game theory is an adapted choice for studying cooperative communications is various. Nodes in the network are independent agents, making decisions only for their own interests. Game theory provides us sufficient theoretical tools to analyze the network users' behaviors and actions. Game theory, also primarily deals with distributed optimization, which often requires local information only. Thus it enables us to design distributed algorithms. . This article surveys the literature on game theory as they apply to wireless networks. First, a brief overview of classifications of games, important definitions used in games (Nash Equilibrium, Pareto efficiency, Pure, Mixed and Fully mixed strategies) and game models are presented. Then, we identified five areas of application of game theory in wireless networks; therefore, we discuss related work to game theory in communication networks, cognitive radio networks, wireless sensor networks, resource allocation and power control. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the application of game theory in wireless networks.

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2010

In a restructured power market, the network cost is to be allocated between multiple players utilizing the system in varying capacities. Cooperative game approaches based on Shapley value and Nucleolus provide stable models for embedded cost allocation of power networks. Varying network usage necessitates the introduction of probabilistic approaches to cooperative games. This paper proposes a variety of probabilistic cooperative game approaches. These have variably been modeled based upon the probability of existence of players, the probability of existence of coalitions, and the probability of players joining a particular coalition along with their joining in a particular sequence. Application of these approaches to power networks reflects the system usage in a more justified way. Consistent and stable results qualify the application of probabilistic cooperative game approaches for cost allocation of power networks.

2017

Game Theory (GT) has been used with excellent results to model and optimize the operation of a huge number of real-world systems, including in communications and networking. Using a tutorial style, this paper surveys and updates the literature contributions that have applied a diverse set of theoretical games to solve a variety of challenging problems, namely in wireless data communication networks. During our literature discussion, the games are initially divided into three groups: classical, evolutionary, and incomplete information. Then, the classical games are further divided into three subgroups: non-cooperative, repeated, and cooperative. This paper reviews applications of games to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for the efficient operation of some standardized uses cases at the edge of emerging heterogeneous networks. Finally, we highlight the important challenges, open issues, and future research directions where GT can bring beneficial outcomes to emerging wireles...

Operational Research in the Digital Era – ICT Challenges, 2019

Game theory constitutes a mathematical method for rational decision making in competitive and conflicting situations under specified rules, and thus is closely associated with decision theory. The applicability and usefulness of game theory has been already proved in the research area of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and network optimization in general. P2P networks consist of autonomous nodes that not only collaborate for sharing and consuming resources, but also act independently and are governed by selfish motives. Thus, game-theoretic solutions lend themselves well for problems arising in P2P networks. Also, game-theoretic approaches have recently been employed in order to exploit the benefits of cloud infrastructures. The proposed work surveys the recent developments on game-theoretic approaches in P2P networks and cloud systems, and provides a classification of approaches dealing with a variety of problems encountered in the design and deployment of P2P and cloud systems.

ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING & TELEINFORMATICS, 2004

Abstract—In this paper, a new resource allocation scheme for Differentiated Services networks based on Game Theory is proposed. The proposed scheme uses dynamic packet prices and charges 'aggressive'users at higher fees than others. Rational users' strategies for submitting bandwidth requests are also analysed. Moreover, the conditions of the existence of a Nash Equilibrium are presented. Simulations show that our algorithm is helpful in making users constrain their usage of network resources, which can lead to ...